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North Korean Activist Yeonmi Park Criticizes Trump’s Decision to Enter the Country in New Op-Ed for The Hill

Yeonmi Parkfled the totalitarian regime in North Korea for the United States with the hope of returning home one day. However, President Trump’s decision to enter the country has once again put that hope at risk.

“Congratulations, Mr. Trump—you’ve gone where other U.S. presidents would not. In paying a friendly visit to the giant gulag that is North Korea, you’ve taken another step toward legitimizing the Kim regime. In doing so, my chances of returning alive and free to that land have declined again,” writes Yeonmi Park in her powerful opinion piece for The Hill.

Many politicians, pundits, and academics have criticized Trump’s direct involvement with North Korea and its tyrannical leader Kim Jong-un, most recently citing his visit as a “propaganda victory” for Kim. Park echoes this sentiment in her deeply personal opinion piece for The Hill, writing that the visit is just as much a photo-op for President Trump and his administration to prove they’ve accomplished something. She wonders, “Would you have congratulated yourself for being the first president to visit Auschwitz, not as a liberator but as a ‘friend’ of Hitler?”

Millions of North Koreans have already died of famine and brutality at the hands of Kim’s regime, and many more would rather escape to a life of slavery in China than risk the imposed starvation in North Korea. Park writes, “I do not ask Americans to fight a war to set them free. But I ask you not to collude with the criminal Kim regime or to obstruct others from working toward my people's freedom.”